In order to transform something you must be innovative. Being innovative means doing something first, ahead of your compitition. Lawyers and Law Firms are not known for being first for much. Two books you must read now are "Blue Ocean Strategy", by W.Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, and "Our Iceberg is Melting", by John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber.

In the first book, "Blue Ocean Strategy", it paints a vivid picture of what is possible when you go out and get ahead of your competititon. The second, "Our Iceberg is Meltin" is a very clever story about how to get people to move with you into uncharted territory. The are both quick and valuable reads-enjoy!

Recently I have been in talks with two National Canadian firms. One is investing in their people this year the other is not. Can you guess what the next few years are going to look like for the firm that is investing? Here are some hints: better retention, higher revenues, increased client loyalty, and on it goes. So ask yourself is 2010 going to be the year you go for it or are you going to let the other guys get there first?

With most law firms frozen in their tracks and budgets cut or illiminated, it would be so easy for those who have even just a bit of courage to stand out in the marketplace.

 Want to know how? Email me for our White Paper on Law Firm Innovation. gary@gemcommunications.ca

Change does not happen by itself. It must be planned for and led. That takes leadership. So if you wish to lead a change effort at your firm, here’s the condensed version of what you need to know about leading change. First let’s look at the various roles required in leading change. Ask yourself  "Where do I fit in? "Where am I best suited to lead?"

I like to call this first part "The set up"

The lobbyist

Before you begin to suggest a change effort at a committee or management meeting, spend some time talking to like minded people in your firm, both lawyers and management. Get consenus and support for your idea from a number of power weilding brokers. Get their agreement that they will support you when you bring this idea forward.

The vision

Clearly articulate the sense of urgency and opportunity. Why should we do this? What is it going to mean to individuals, the firm and our clients. What are the positive outcomes of this effort? Once people have a clear understanding of how your effort will positively impact them and their practice or role, they are much more likely to go along for the ride.

Owners

Identify at the outset who is going to own this change effort? The one person whose role it is to see this effort from inception through to immplementation. Is it you? This is the person who will tactically make it happen. They will remain in the trenches until the effort has been completed.

Champions

These are the people who will champion the cause and support the owners of the effort. One innovative strategy here is to create a ‘working group’ of champions whose purpose is to champion the effort and support the owner. Recruit those with highly developed creative, analytical, technical, business, leadership, and communication skills. Populate this group with both left brain (analytical) and right brain (creative minds). Harvard Business Review refers to this as taking a ‘both brain approach’. This group’s members should be very well respected, hold authority among the ranks, and represent a cross section of personality styles. When people can identify with at least one member of this working group, then the responsibility of gaining investment among the ranks is shared by all group members leading to a greater probability of success.

Stay tuned for Part Two

Did you know that the physiological reaction to fear and excitement produce the same bodily sensations? That’s right- (rise in body temperature, hair stands on end, you feel the pit of your stomach). So if the physiological response is the same, how do you differentiate between fear and excitement? Your thoughts! The way you think about omethings defines how you respond to it. It’s your choice. You choose what to make of it.

So ask yourself the following questions:

What does this current economic cycle mean to me?

Am I looking at it from a negaitve point of view and therefore only seeing doom and gloom? Or do I see it from a positive perspective and recognize its opportunities?

The fact is most will only see doom and gloom. That leaves a lot of room on the table for those of you who choose opportunity. I believe that there has never been a better time or set of conditions to embrace innovation and propel your practice or your firm way out in front of your competition.

First off I must apologize to the loyal followers of this blog for not having made a post in some time. Busy getting ready for my presentation in Dublin for the Canadian Bar Association.

Are you leveraging all the sources of support that are abailable to you?

Leverage the wisdom and experience of your peers involved in associations. Most law firms belong to an international associations. Share best practices with your peers in other markets. Learn from them what has and hasn’t worked. Again, there is no point re-inventing the wheel. What has worked for them will likely work for you.

Leverage your C-level staff. Your professional management team was presumably hired for their expertise and experience. So let them do their job and empower them to succeed.

Leverage outside expertise. Outsource when needed. You wouldn’t want one of your clients to think that they could serve themselves with some complicated legal issue, so don’t feel you either know or have to know everything-there are a great number of consultants out there who understand what you need. Getting help or support is not a sign of weakness; it’s a sign of strength. Think of professional athletes. They wouldn’t try to make the Olympic team by themselves. They hire experienced expert coaches to help them get there. This is operating from a place of strength.

Large or small, regional, boutique or national, one thing is for sure about the future of law firms. They must adapt a ‘client centric’ approach and move away from the current ‘lawyer centric’ approach. The industry is under transformation much like everything else around us. Those who continue to bury their heads in the sand holding on to ancient models will go the way of the dinosaur. Clients of all shapes and sizes are demanding greater value. This is not going away. For those who think the current economic downturn is merely a blip and that all things will return to normal when the economy bounces back are very foolish.

It is so obvious what the solution must be. Offer the best value and be proactive in serving your clients. This means a number of changes must occur. And I am not here to rant. Consider the following questions and rank your law firm’s level of client centric score.

1. Do we consider our clients first before making business decisions?
2. Are we consistently communicating with our clients to ensure we are delivering maximum value?
3. Are we structured/organized to be the most effective and efficient in the delivery of our services?
4. Have we systemized procedures in order to cut down on duplication and waste?
5. Do we reward client centric behavior?
6. Do we delegate the work to where it can most effectively and efficiently be delivered to our clients?
7. Do we provide our people with the most effective tools in order to learn and develop?
8. Do we embrace technology in order to streamline delivery and service?
9. Are we governed in a way that allows us to be nimble, proactive and able to make decisions instantly in order to adapt to client or market conditions?
10. Do we consistently go above and beyond the expectation of our clients and deliver more than they have asked for?

Out of ten, how many did you honestly answer yes to? What is your firm’s client centric score?

Most firms have cut back or haulted investing in professional development due to this economy. The bad news is that while you think you are better positioning yourself for re-bound, you are not. The reality is this. Most of your associates and some of your partners are bored to death right now. That boredom leads to unhappiness. If you don’t do something to curtail this bordem, when the economy does rebound, you won’t have any talent left to serve your clients.

There couldn’t be a better time to get out from the number crunching game and get into the people development game. Why? For one most if not all of your competition is going to sit on their hands and do nothing. So this presents an amazing opportunity to differeniate yourself from your competition. Two, your lawyers have idle time on their hands. Why not make use of that time for client relationship training, business development training, and leadership training? One of the key motivators for lawyers entering the profession of law is the intellectual challenge that if provides. With less stimulating work right now and more time on their hands they are left to brew. And if you are opperating a small or regional firm, the opportunities are even greater and more and more general counsel look for greater value and are open to looking to smaller firms for larger files.

This is just plain common sense. Oh, that’s right; common sense is not so ‘common’.

Why is it in so many firms the professional development efforts are not coordinated with marketing? They can support a great deal of what your marketing department is doing. At the high level your firm sponsors events, has paid advertising, hosts events etc. All of these are designed to support your brand, or rather ‘brand promise’. And what is truly your brand? Your people and how they interact with your clients. So it makes sense then that by developing your people you are strengthening your brand-right? So why is then that the people or departments that are empowered to run professional development and marketing are not working together?

Let me use an example of what I am talking about. Take for instance a brand of "partnering with you in success". This is loosely taken from an actual tag line or brand promise. Ok, so how are you partnering with me in success, a client might ask? It’s in our approach, how we work with you; how we advise you and prevent issues from coming up. So, wouldn’t it then make sense to design your professional development program to actually train your lawyers and staff how to do just that? It’s one thing to make a promise. It’s another thing to keep it! I see a lot of great marketing and branding out there. But what I don’t see is the support and training for your people to back it up-to keep the promise.

As with all development programs that seek to positively change behaviour, your approach is no different when looking to develop leaders. The first step is to identify early adopters. These are your people who are open to trying new things; wish to take their practice, group or team to the next level; are committed to your firm; and already possess some natural leadership abilities. (They will have already displayed the willingness and desire to lead, mentor, groom and help other lawyers succeed).

From there, conduct an audit to determine how these ‘early adopters’ would like to recieve training and support. In other words, what format and frequency would work best? You are likely to find any number of approaches here. One size fits all should never be the answer. The training will likely take the form of some group work, follow up sessions and even some personalized coaching. The key thing to keep in mind is that this is not an experiment; it is the beginning of creating a new culture within your firm. So call it what you will-a pilot, cohort, group 1, this will lay the foundation for a new way of ‘being’ at your firm.

From the beginning any program you design should be built with the understanding that what you really seek to create is legacy. While you may need to bring in outside consultants in the initial stages to conduct the audit, training and coaching; ideally you want to build it so that it eventually is run internally. So your first graduates begin to take on more mentoring and coaching of the second group and so on. Eventually you have an internal program of leadership development that is part of your firm’s culture.